How to avoid paying sales tax on a used car

Only five states do not have statewide sales taxes: Montana, Alaska, Delaware, Oregon, and New Hampshire. Unfortunately, unless you register the car in the sales–tax-free state, you will still have to pay the sales tax when you register the vehicle with your home state’s DMV.

According to Carbrain, you may or may not have to pay taxes when you give or receive a car as a gift. While some car owners consider selling the car for a dollar instead of gifting it, the DMV gift car process is the recommended, not to mention more legitimate, way to go.

Taxes When Buying a Car Out of State

You will be required to pay the sales tax rate from your home state. Typically, if you are buying your car from a private seller, the sales taxes will be collected after the actual sale. You will be required to provide the money before you register the vehicle and get a title.

Cheapest States to Buy a Car: Overall Winner!

Overall, New Hampshire is the cheapest state to buy a car, since registration fees are low and sales tax non-existent. Florida is the second cheapest state to buy a car, and the state has a wonderful inventory. In fact, cars cost around ten percent less than the average.

The months of October, November and December are the best time of year to buy a car. Car dealerships have sales quotas, which typically break down into yearly, quarterly and monthly sales goals.

When Paying for a Car With Cash Might Not Make Sense

On the other hand, there are some arguments against using your own funds to buy a car. For example: You might deplete savings that are necessary for current expenses or future emergencies. You may not have enough to buy a safe and reliable car.

Since January is the slowest month for sales, it is much slower for luxury cars to sell. Because of this, it may be more challenging for the most expensive ones to be taken out of your parking lot. To sell out the most expensive ones in your inventory, January is the best time to offer promotional deals to the buyers.

You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. The short answer is that most car salespeople don’t earn a whole hell of a lot of money. Dealership salespeople average about 10 car sales per month, and earn an average of about $40k per year. If you do the math, that’s about $330 per car.

When you’re buying a used car, I’d say the sweet spot is two-three years and 24,000 to 36,000 miles. At that point, lots of cars will have depreciated by about a third. Some more, some less. But with most new cars easily going 100,000 to 150,000 miles, you’re buying the majority of the car’s life, for a third off.

Taxes, Title, and Registration Fees

Taxes vary from state-to-state and are based on the price you end up paying for the car. To be on the safe side, you should plan to have to at least $1,000 or more in reserve to cover taxes and registration fees. Depending on the kind of car you are buying, these costs can be high.

No, in most cases, buying a car with 100K miles is not a bad idea. In fact, there are a number of benefits to buying a high-mileage car. For example, cars with 100K miles cost less to purchase, register, and insure, all while depreciating slower than low-mileage cars.

As a general rule, you should assume that the average car owner puts 12,000 miles on a car each year. To determine whether a car has reasonable mileage, you can simply multiply 12,000 by its age. That means good mileage for a car that’s 5 years old is 60,000.

While it’s a good idea to consider the age of a vehicle and the number on its odometer, it’s more important to look at how well the owner maintained the car. A 10-year-old car with 100,000 miles may have received more TLC than a five-year-old model with 50,000 miles.

Typically, putting 12,000 to 15,000 miles on your car per year is viewed as “average.” A car that is driven more than that is considered high-mileage. With proper maintenance, cars can have a life expectancy of about 200,000 miles.

So for used car shoppers, purchasing a car that’s two to three years old and driving it for three years results in some of the lowest costs for recent model cars.